Fishermen finding carapace increase hard to swallow

Fishermen returning to port in Miminegash on Wednesday were not so much concerned with the size of their catch as they were with what they were throwing over. “It’s scary,” said Peter Hustler, a fisherman’s helper with captain Michael Myers. He estimated the amount of lobsters he had to return that would have been legal size last year, would have meant eight to 10 more pans of canners. The carapace measure was increased by two millimeters this year following a one-mm increase last year, and Myers had plenty to say about that. “The measure is not going to prove out,” he said, suggesting Federal Fisheries Minister Dominic LeBlanc should have listened to P.E.I. fishermen’s pleas and trimmed the carapace increase to just a millimeter this year. click here to read the story 11:35

NILS STOLPE: The New England groundfish debacle (Part IV): Is cutting back harvest really the answer?

While it’s a fact that’s hardly ever acknowledged, the assumption in fisheries management is that if the population of a stock of fish isn’t at some arbitrary level, it’s because of too much fishing. Hence the term “overfished.” Hence the mandated knee jerk reaction of the fisheries managers to not enough fish; cut back on fishing. What of other factors? They don’t count. It’s all about fishing, because fishing is all that the managers can control; it’s their Maslow’s Hammer. When it comes to the oceans it seems as if it’s about all that the industry connected mega-foundations that support the anti-fishing ENGOs with hundreds of millions of dollars a year in “donations” are interested in controlling. Read the article here

The fishermen, scientists, fishery regulators and environmentalists who slogged through slushy streets and half-cleared sidewalks below could only wish that the summit they were attending Monday Read More »